THE RAP ON SOUTH JERSEY
by Chin Li
You must be wondering why somebody with a name like mine is writing about Rap and Hip Hop music, in South Jersey of all places. Well! It is because this is one of the places where it was born. If you are one of those who think it was not born there, you must admit it certainly was nurtured there.
A little while ago Gary Davis, who is the MIC of Jade and the White Tiger, a martial arts/action/drama movie which I wrote the screenplay, donated a copy of his first record, produced in all places South Jersey, to a group of college student, who are working on a comic book version of the movie. The reason why he donated the record was to put it on Ebay and raise money to publish the book. Where the rest of them? I asked. How can you raise funds with just one copy? So! I investigated to find out more about this record. Well! I quickly found out that a copy had sold on Ebay a few week ago for . I was shocked! Why was this particular record done by Mr. Davis worth so much? Why were others he worked on worth even more?
Well! Tewnty-five years ago, Mr. Davis was in New York working for Peter Brown. He produced, arranged, composed and played on many of Peter’s Queen Constance projects from early 1979 through 1981. It was about the end of the Disco Era and the start of Rap and Hip Hop and Peter was putting out more records on his independent label then anybody. He is one of it’s founding fathers. Peter was the man behind marketing and putting the music out there. Mr. Davis, Patrick Adams, Michael Campbell and others like them were Peter’s music makers. They were shaping what was to become Hip Hop.
When Mr. Davis found himself unable to locate Peter Brown, mainly because unlike the rest of Peter’s crew he was living in Camden at the time. He began Chocolate Star Records with a friend of his Dennis Jones aka DJ. DJ was a DJ in Camden and knew the music scene. He had the connections.
When Mr. Davis decided to produce his first LP. Dennis produced the Pop. It may have been the first tune release with a drum machine. The Pop became a big hit in there home town of Camden. Largely according to Mr. Davis due to DJ connections at the locate Skating Ring where half of Camden visited every weekend. They played the hell out of it. When the 12" was released Mrs. Davis sold them to the three record shops in Camden like Hot Cakes.
But! Davis had send his LP through record pools all across America. Twenty-two years later it’s all history. Mr. Davis studied music composition at Glassboro State, now Rowan Universary and has a BA from there. He has written for TV, Movies, Big Band, Local bands and even Orchestras. Jazz is his first love. His Uncle was the Late Jazz Great, Richard "Groove" Holmes who influenced him greatly. One of his composition teacher at Glassboro was the Late Jazz Great Composer/Arranger Manny Album. He too was a great influence. By listening to Mr. Davis music at that time period you can see how it influence what came later. "Stay with me" a tune on the LP was written for David Lopez, orginially titled Hey Shari was record with a Jazz Orchestra including a string section in 1976. This was about six years before the LP came out. The 12" that came out after the LP featuring Slow Walking and Space Walking were tunes greatly influenced my Groove Holmes. Mr. Davis even played his Uncle keyboard on it. These two were part of the begining of House and Trances music. Davis never took Super Jake serious. But! It was one of the first Raps produced. Groove Holmes’s son Larry Holmes played Bass on the LP and his newphew Wendell Davis, Mr. Davis’ brother played Guitar. It was all in the family. Mr. Davis is now producing TV and independent movies and yes music as well. But! I think his old Glassboro State should give him one of thoses honorary Doctorites in music for helping shape today’s music world. Maybe even get him to teach there or something. So! Hip Hop is influence by people who studied and took music very seriously. After all Mr. Davis was classical trainned in music. He wrote tunes for strings, flutes and classical configurations. To him music is music, it’s all the same.
So! You see! This is why I am writting about this. Not many people know about this and this is just a small part of the story. But! I guess this is why that record worth as much as it is. I must get back to writting my next screenplay "ZHEN". I’ll see you at the movies!
Chin Li
